Don't Get Caught Out on Halloween Night! Prepare by Reading One Dark Halloween Night by John Kohlbrenner! Ages 12 and Up!

The teenagers’ laughter echoed in the house reaching as far down as the dark basement, where a deep inhuman chuckle added to the laughter. In the darkness, little lights from dozens of jack-o’-lanterns stood out like fireflies. They were excited, too. Twisting and turning animated by the presence of their master, their lord. “Hallowone, Hallowone, Hallowone!” They called out in their whispery inhuman voices. The Jack-o’-lanterns were all around an impossibly huge pumpkin, its openings closed. The room then brightened as it opened its eyes and mouth, inside a blue flame burned. “Soon,” was all it said, “Soon.”

One Dark Halloween Night

By John Kohlbrenner

See More if you Dare athttp://onedarkhalloweennight.com

Sitting together on top of a table at night,

Two little pumpkins made quite a flickering sight.

Tiny candles burned brightly from within,

Lighting up what looked like a sinister grin.

But what secrets they held from being outside,

For in the night there was something they had eyed.

There were spirits about haunting the neighborhood,

And these twins stood guard protecting only the good.

……….Professor Grimmgraves..

Three jack-o'-lanterns
 illuminated from within
by candles.
 Wikipedia

Well this was a first for me--a full length Halloween novel! It is scary, of course, especially in some parts--well, I have to say, almost ALL parts.. The main characters are four friends, all twelve years old. Jason is  their leader and we find out that he's somewhat special--he can show no fear--of anything! Oh sure, if he knows he's in true danger, he'll run like the rest of us, but he's running for self-protection, not from being afraid.... He has three friends--Drake, Fred, and Walt who share all of the adventures!

Jason's Mom works nights as a nurse and his older brother has not been treating him like he used to--before their Dad had died. What that means is that the guys are on their own a lot!

They all live in Autumnville! And much of their activities surround Halloween--even having a costume shop open all year round.
But Jason has been having dreams this year. Dreams about Halloween and all the usual characters around at this time of year--but they all are alive!

"The twelve-year-old boy, while well-natured, tended to be on the wild reckless side, always taking chances and thinking bold thoughts, often pushing his friends on crazy adventures. He would do such daring things as climbing with his friends the tallest trees in town, or jumping their bikes over Dan Born Creak and the Doomsday Ditch. At this moment, he wanted to tell his buddies about something he had recently learned. But for now he would just wait and relaxing on his bed. He hadn’t slept well the night before, strange dreams. They were talking about Halloween and when it came to the holiday, he couldn’t stop daydreaming about all the wild things they would do on Halloween night. No, he would bring it up soon...

The nightmare he had the night before was still fresh in his mind, and he pondered on what was the cause of it. He never had nightmares before or dreams so realistic. Was it because it was almost Halloween, or was he too wrapped up in this supernatural internet conspiracy? He didn’t know, but he hoped his bright friend Drake could make a good guess. “The dream I had last night could be related to what is happening in town?” Jason whispered. Sitting at the desk next to Jason, Drake gave him a short, nervous glance. 
“You’re making me feel like I am in one of those horror movies. You know the one with the burned-up ghost.” 
“This school is a horror movie. The teacher wants us to finish the Poe collection by Monday: 100 pages on Halloween weekend.”

~~~

"While Jake was lost in backwoods thoughts of his beloved barn, an unusual thing was happening out in the cornfield. As he passed the scarecrows, their heads slowly turned to follow him. Button-eyed heads somehow saw Farmer Flayger as he walked past them. As Jake progressed closer and closer to the barn, an excited energy rippled through them with such intensity that tiny blue sparks danced across their exposed hay as if they were live wires deadly to the touch. "Now Jake, a thick-headed corn jockey, was beginning to have a clue that something unnatural was in motion. The hairs on his arms were standing up, and a bout of nervousness was settling in. Could there be a storm coming? There wasn’t a cloud out there. Maybe something was wrong with the barn? His mind raced with uneasy thoughts, something was not right. Then he saw the barn door. It was slightly ajar even though he had been religious about always keeping it closed and locked. Reaching the barn, he cautiously slid through the gap. Inside it was dark, too dark for this time of day. He could barely see anything in front of him. As he reached for a flashlight hanging from a support beam he noticed there were already lights. Tiny, blue-tinged ones spread out through the darkened barn. As he watched them,

Pumpkins at Halloween
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

he could make out shapes formed by the lights, triangles, circles, and zigzags. He stared at the lights until he saw that they were actually faces, that of almost a hundred glowing jack-o’-lanterns. Jake’s last living thought was that he didn’t even grow pumpkins on his farm. His scream echoed outside across the empty cornfield. Not even the scarecrows were there to hear it. Only their support poles remained.

Farmer Jake was the first to actually be taken... He had thought maybe he'd made more scarecrows than he'd remembered, but they were coming from all over, from nearby farms, from other towns...

So were witches, ghosts and lots and lots of pumpkins!

One of the local police officers was next...Their bodies were being taken over by zombies from the Hester's Creep House graveyard...

collinpeterson.com

“You guys haven’t been too hard to convince, but getting other people to believe…” 
“Like the mayor?” Drake interrupted. “Yes the mayor, the police, our parents,” Jason continued, “we need more evidence and pictures. We also have to check out some of the spooky places around town such as the old factory buildings, and even Hester’s Creep House.”
“I’m telling you baby, Hester’s Creep House,” Malcolm proclaimed proudly, “is the perfect place for a Halloween party!” With Malcolm’s loud insistence, a shocked silence filled the store. Everyone from behind the various aisles now stared at him, their mouths gapped. The infamous Hester’s Creep House was a taboo in this town, a place desperately avoided. Malcolm quickly became angry and shouted, “Everybody, go back to your shopping!” 
"Walt raced over to join Jason and Drake. “Dudes, we are so going to crash that party!” 
“Shhhhh!” Jason hissed, “We will, we will, but we need to go there before my brother and make sure the place is safe.” “From the roof falling on their heads?” Walt asked. 
“No, from the supernatural.” Walt turned to Drake and mouthed, “supernatural?”

~~~

And it was there at the Creep House that the evening ended... But not before the town's annual Halloween parade had been ruined by all of the Halloween creatures coming to kidnap everybody! Witches flew in and grabbed children or old women! Pumpkins were rolling or bouncing, only to stop and bite the legs of those there to watch the parade. Soon everybody noticed that even displays in the storefronts and everything in the Halloween costume shop had come alive and were coming outside. There had been hundreds who had come for the parade--now they were running for their lives!

Now, readers will learn a lot more as the boys investigate what might be happening, including meeting Professor Grimmgraves, who maintained a Halloween Blog that Jason had been a follower of since it had started! But they were only now finding out that it was the town librarian who wrote the blog! Only thing he had to help, however, had been stolen! By the very same guy who was trying to get Jason involved! You know--that guy I won't identify by name...

Here's the one thing I'm going to share--The Hallowone Monster has a secret energy...but, this time, it helped our four heroes! Of course, they kinda changed...

Jason

Drake

Fred

Walt

Now you do have to admit that if you're going to fight monsters, you have to be in the right frame of mind--like by wearing the outfit of your favorite monster! How would the boys know that they would actually become those monsters!? But they did enjoy it, wouldn't you?

Oh, and there's several girls around catching the attention of the boys and they even join in the fighting! Cool, right?!

I had a lot of fun with this book and I believe kids (of all ages!) will too! In fact, you might want to get this now, so your own children have the chance to find out...what...is...coming... Be Prepared! There's a New Monster Coming to Town!

What? My Darlings Are Just Practicing--We Love Halloween Too!

John Kohlbrenner

Born in Blytheville Arkansas, but living there was not to be.
Ended up growing up in Buffalo and Denver you see.
Went to the University of Colorado and got a film and English degree.
Then moved to Los Angeles to work in the movie industry.
Was a sound FX editor for eight years, but that was not for me.
Raised my daughter at home, lovingly doing it for free.
Now it’s time to start a new career, this being number three.
I’ve become a writer, so buy my book, if you hear my plea.
It’s an exciting and scary novel, I’m sure you would agree.
I hope you like my life rhyme and not found it too goofy.

Town Destroyed by...Green Goop and Slime!

Image by zen via Flickr

Green goop and slime 
destroyed everything in its path...

Shades of Green


By Ian Woodhead










I made an exception for this book--I normally don't review books with many errors, but because I was unable to read due to a period of vertigo which prevented my reading and contacting the author earlier, I made a special effort to overlook the typos, which didn't disturb the reading too badly. The major issue is the lack of scene differentiation and the lack of highlighting dream sequences. Only one dream in the entire novel was in italics, followed by the character waking up...which worked really well. Others have already gone into these issues in their reviews, so I'll just close with,,,

I found it difficult not to keep reading if you first make the decision to not be critical of errors as you read. The book was good enough for a full 5 ranking, but got a 4 because... I hope the author considers a new edition because horror fans are bound to enjoy this book.

Deep in the woods near a small country village, there was a hole in the ground which led to a room that had been there for thousands of years. But what was there in that room was disturbed, and awoke, one day...

Two older boys were chasing younger boys. The older boys called it fun...The younger boys were afraid! And when one of the boys fell into that hole during the chase, he was hurt and his blood flowed out...awakening that which was there...

The other young boy was traumatized and was immediately changed. In order to appease that which now controlled him, he pushed his mother down that hole... He left town, but had been kept in a drug-induced coma for many years.

The next time--three small boys were involved; two were killed and one had been found alive in a bag, never to be the same again. He, too, had changed. His name was Alan and he lived in a small home with his mother and younger brother Damien. It was a loving family, but Damien definitely felt the change since his older brother had been such a wonderful friend, as well, in the past.

And then the body of one of the boys was found...

As if the earth could no longer accept all that had happened in that little town's wooded area, it had regurgitated the body...and the corruption began to spread... Ernest, the boy in the coma was soon back in town...

Dreams of what was happening started for both Alan and Damien and oftentimes readers will feel like a scene is repeating, while the dream is foretelling of what is coming...

It began with mushrooms growing and spilling spores into the air, trees taking on aggressive actions, using limbs to capture flying creatures and their trunks to hold captives like they were glued. Then people started to be infected or bitten and spider eggs laid in bodies while others were turned into monsters who preyed on other humans, becoming cannibals..

All living plants and insects were infected. Soon the wood of buildings began to deteriorate as blood became slime and slowly merged into green goop that destroyed everything in its path... What didn't die became a ravenous monster.

This book is not about the characters. It is almost continuously one horror scene after another, either through a dream, as as it actually happens...Because every dream that Damien had is coming true...and he's running for his life! Not for light stomachs and I recommend you don't read at night! LOL This is scary good as the Chiller channel says...A horror lover's delight!

Book Received
from Author


GABixlerReviews

Review: Killer Pizza - Hold the Monsters!

The three of them wanted a summer job, all for different reasons, but for Toby Magill, Annabel and Strobe, it meant that they applied to make pizza at a new place called Killer Pizza. Toby was the only one that was really interested in making pizza, since he hoped to become a chef one day in the future. So making pizza during summer vacation seemed a great start for the future. Although 4 new employees started that first day, all of them began to work well together and form a team, except Doug, who always seemed to be doing something other than what he was supposed to do!

After training, they were really getting into the groove, although Toby was faster and better at the actual pizza making. Steve Rogers had hired them and already Toby was wondering what was the secret ingredient that he used in his special pizza and whether he could duplicate it or maybe create his own sauce!

Toby and Annabel were both 14, Strove 15, so it wasn’t surprising that both Toby and Strove soon had a crush on Annabel. Time passed quickly, so quickly that, when Steve called them into his office, they weren’t sure why—especially when he left and told them that the owner would be in shortly to see them!

They were quite surprised that the owner turned out to be Doug and he was so pleased with their teamwork that he wanted to offer them another job. Actually Doug’s name was Harvey P. Major and the pizza empire he owned was just a front to fund his humanitarian work. He “eliminated monsters.”

Ok, you can think, “Ghost Busters” and get a fairly good idea of the rest of the book! I thought it was a fun read, and if the reader is old enough to know that monsters are great fantasy characters, then, I highly recommend it. I felt that the three main characters showed considerable “growth” of physical, emotional, and mental strengths because of their training to become “Monster Combat Officers” so it is more than pure entertainment!

And you even get Toby’s recipe for “Fiery Dragon-Breath Pizza!” How cool is that!

G. A. Bixler